Open Records

Adoption News: Editorials Against N.J., Minnesota Open Records Bills

Submitted by VirginiaC on Sat, 03/08/2008 - 21:29

NewspaperThe largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey is calling on state legislators to reject a bill to open sealed adoption records. The Star Ledger takes issue with most of the arguments that the bill's backers have used to advance it, from adoptee rights to the need for medical histories. "Changing the law retroactively," it concludes, "is just plain wrong". The bill (S611) passed the New Jersey Senate earlier this week and now goes to the state's Assembly. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has written an editorial against a similar bill pending in Minnesota.

New Jersey's attorney general

Adoptee Rights in the news

Submitted by SandraHanksBenoiton on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 10:13

It looks like the push for open records for adoptees got a big boost with this article in USA Today, even quoting not only the usual suspects like reputed agency shill Thomas Atwood, but also Ann Fessler and the sometimes-too-acerbic-for-prime-time, yet always fab, Marley Greiner. The report starts out in Maine, where state Senator Paula Benoit was responsible for getting a new law on open records passed ... and found her birth family in the process.

Adoptee rights and open records

Submitted by SandraHanksBenoiton on Sat, 02/09/2008 - 09:38
Mainly because I don't live in the US and come to adoption through the door marked "International" ... but partially because I've been lazier than I should have been ... I only recently came around to giving a lot of thought to the adoptee rights movement that focuses on unsealing adoption records for adoptees giving them access to their original birth certificates, and therefore their original identity. Over the years I heard plenty about the fight for open records state-by-state, but it always seemed a no-brainer to me ... of course adult adoptees should have the option of knowing the names of the people who combined DNA and came up with them, and whatever circumstances an official document might suggest or lead them to